Hanford Worker Safety Settlement Reached, Feds Will Pay $925,000

SEATTLE, WA – The Department of Energy will pay $925,000 and work to improve the safety of workers trying to clean up the polluted Hanford Nuclear Reservation. The department settled a lawsuit Wednesday.

The department will also pay $925,000 to the state and advocacy groups that had filed the suit.

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson originally filed the suit in 2015. His suit was later combined with one filed by an advocacy group and he union representing the workers.

“This is a major victory for the brave men and women working to clean up the Hanford Nuclear Reservation,” Ferguson said. “This is an historic outcome, but let’s be honest, it should not have required a lawsuit to get the federal government to do the right thing.”

“The parties have agreed to an enforceable settlement that requires specific actions to solve the vapor exposure issue at Hanford throughout the rest of the cleanup.”

Hanford originally opened in 1944 as a production facility for the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb for the U.S. government. The plutonium used for the bomb dropped on Nagaaski was produced at the plant.

It’s located outside of Richland in southwest Washington.

When the government stopped producing plutonium in 1987, Hanford was considered the most-polluted nuclear plant in the country. It is currently the site of the largest environmental clean-up in the United States.